When Will Home Values Quit Falling?

01/22/2013

For over a year the Real Estate industry has been predicting that the worst is over and that home values will stop falling and then will slowly start rising again. While this has happened in a few cities, for the most part, home values are still dropping and now with worry about a new economic crisis many home buyers and sellers worry that things are only going to get worse.

With so many homes still being foreclosed on and the unemployment rate remaining extremely high it doesn’t look like home values are going to quit dropping anytime soon. This has both, those who are looking to sell their homes and those looking to buy their homes extremely worried.

From a sellers point of view, selling their home for a value far beneath what they paid for their home is unacceptable especially when they may be competing in areas where mass foreclosures are driving home values even lower than the norm. Many of these owners are making the decision to hold on to the home hoping that prices improve or at least stabilize.

On the other hand potential home buyers are hesitating to spend money on a home whose value may drop before the ink is even dry on the loan papers. Many buyers are reluctant to risk buying a home whose value may be less than the loan itself within a month or two of purchase leaving them underwater before they make their first loan payment.

Looking to the experts seems to offer little help as even the experts can’t seem to agree when this down spiral of home values will come to an end. With so many buyers and seller in limbo this leaves a wide open field for those big investors who have the financial backing to pick up many of these homes for a song in the hopes of making a financial killing once the housing market improves.

For the rest of the world it seems to be pretty much a wait and see game as buyers and sellers are paying closer attention to the housing market than ever before waiting and hoping for some sign that the worst is truly over and they can look forward to purchasing that new home or selling that old home for a fair price.

Even once housing values stop dropping recovery could take a good long time which leaves buyers and sellers both living in limbo.